Kofi's Choice

Updated Oct. 15, 2001 1:27 a.m. ET

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was met at his New York headquarters last Friday by hundreds of employees cheering the news that the Norwegian Nobel Committee had awarded its centennial Peace Prize to Mr. Annan and the U.N. generally. In the words of the Nobel citation: "He has risen to such new challenges as HIV/AIDS and international terrorism, and brought about more efficient utilization of the U.N.'s modest resources."

Mr. Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who has spent much of his professional life at...